USB controller and buffer memory control method

Abstract

A USB controller according to one aspect of the present invention is a USB controller incorporated in a USB device, the USB controller including a RAM that stores data transferred through a USB port or a CPU bus, and a register that holds a setting for determining to which one of a region for host used for a host function and a region for peripheral used for a peripheral function a part of the RAM is allocated.

1. A USB (Universal Serial Bus) controller incorporated in a USB device, the USB controller comprising:
 a buffer memory that stores data transferred through a USB port or a CPU bus said buffer memory divided into a first region used when the USB device is used for a peripheral function and a second region used when the USB device is used for a host function, thereby permitting the USB device to function as a combination device; and 
 a holding part that holds a setting for designating the first region of the buffer memory used for the peripheral function and the second region used for the host function, 
 wherein a first part of the buffer memory is allocated to the first region for peripheral function and a rest of the buffer memory is allocated to the second region for host function when the USB controller is incorporated in a USB device that is a combination device able to concurrently use the host function and the peripheral function. 
 
     
     
       2. The USB controller according to  claim 1 , wherein memory size of the first region for peripheral function allocated by the setting held in the holding part is variable. 
     
     
       3. The USB controller according to  claim 1 , wherein the buffer memory is divided into a plurality of blocks, and the buffer memory is managed by a chain management using a block number attached to each of the blocks. 
     
     
       4. The USB controller according to  claim 3 , wherein a link destination block in the chain management is set according to the block number in the block allocated to the region for host; and a link destination block in the chain management is set to invalid in the block allocated to the region for peripheral. 
     
     
       5. A buffer memory control method controlling a buffer memory provided in a USB (Universal Serial Bus) controller incorporated in a USB device, the method comprising:
 holding a setting for designating a first region of the buffer memory to be used for a peripheral function and a second region to be used for a host function thereby permitting the USB device to function as a combination device; and 
 allocating a part of the buffer memory to a first region for use by the USB device when functioning as a peripheral and a part to a second region for use by the USB device when functioning as a host according to the setting, 
 wherein a first part of the buffer memory is allocated to the first region for peripheral function and a rest of the buffer memory is allocated to the second region for host function when the USB device is able to concurrently use the host function and the peripheral function. 
 
     
     
       6. The buffer memory control method according to  claim 5 , comprising determining a memory size of the first region for peripheral function to be allocated when the setting is held. 
     
     
       7. The buffer memory control method according to  claim 5 , wherein the buffer memory is divided into a plurality of blocks, and the buffer memory is managed as a chain using a block number attached to each of the blocks. 
     
     
       8. The buffer memory control method according to  claim 7 , wherein a link destination block in the chain management is set according to the block number in the block allocated to the region for host; and a link destination block in the chain management is set to invalid in the block allocated to the region for peripheral. 
     
     
       9. The buffer memory control method according to  claim 5 , wherein the holding of a setting a made at the time of manufacturing the USB device. 
     
     
       10. The buffer memory control method according to  claim 5 , wherein the setting of the holding part is set according to a type of the USB device.